Teaching Strategies Archives | It's Lit Teaching

Teaching Strategies ► July 11, 2021

How To Teach Grammar to Students Who Can’t Write

You know that you need to teach grammar. But when you look at your students’ writing, you’re overwhelmed. How can you possibly explain a semicolon or all of the comma rules when your students can’t even write a complete sentence? I’ve gone through the same struggle, my friend. While you probably can’t turn all of your students into Shakespeares in a semester, you can help them improve greatly. In this post, I hope to help show you how to teach grammar (especially to struggling students).

Life Tips for Teachers ► April 18, 2021

Teaching Creative Writing: Tips for Your High School Class

When I was first told that I’d be teaching creative writing, I panicked. While I had always enjoyed writing myself, I had no idea how to show others how to do it creatively. After all, all of my professional development had focused on argumentative writing and improving test scores. Eventually, though, I came to love my creative writing class, and I think you will too. In this post, I hope to help you with shaping your own creative writing class.

Complete Guides ► April 4, 2021

Effective Classroom Management: A Plan College Never Taught You!

College taught me a lot about teaching. I learned about Bloom’s taxonomy and the Common Core State Standards. But the one thing that my peers and I desperately wanted to learn, but were never taught, was how to manage a classroom. Now that I have eight years of teaching experience in a Title 1 school, I want to share what college didn’t teach you about classroom management.

Complete Guides ► March 7, 2021

Teaching Writing with Mini Lessons: A How-to

Every year, teachers are asked to do more--close the gap, make learning fun, use technology, encourage independence, provide quality feedback, collaborate, and so on. It’s not easy finding a class structure that perfectly meets the needs of students, administrators, and classroom evaluators. When it comes to teaching writing with mini lessons, however, you can get pretty close.

Complete Guides ► January 10, 2021

Literature Circles: What You Need to Know

Lately, everywhere I turn teachers are talking about literature circles--and for good reason! If you’re looking for a way to create rigor in your classroom and to cultivate authentic, real-life skills in your students, then literature circles may just be the activity your curriculum needs!

Complete Guides ► November 29, 2020

How to Use Fun Activities to Teach Poetry

When I was first told that I'd be teaching a creative writing class, I immediately want to find fun activities to teach poetry. Over time, I've built up a small arsenal of fun activities to teach poetry in all of its aspects. In this post, I'll share my favorites with you!

Complete Guides ► November 1, 2020

The Best Teacher Gift Ideas for Christmas

Are you shopping for a teacher in your life this year? Now, more than ever, teachers need to be shown a little extra love, support, and kindness. Between learning new virtual teaching techniques, juggling new roles, and trying to avoid falling ill, this has been an incredibly difficult year for educators. In this post, you’ll find teacher gift ideas from an actual teacher!

Teaching Strategies ► October 18, 2020

5 Easy Tips for Teaching Horror Stories

So, you’re teaching horror stories, but you don’t want to do the same, boring unit that everyone else does? You want your students to be engaged, creative, but to also learn the foundational purpose and practices of the horror genre. In this blog post, I’ll cover 5 tips for teaching horror stories so that your unit will stand out!

Life Tips for Teachers ► October 4, 2020

Hybrid Teaching: 3 Tips for Making the Most of It

As I’m writing this, I’m wrapping up my second week of hybrid teaching. For me, that means that I have about half of my class in-person and half of my students online at the same time. It has not been easy. This post will cover three tips for making the most of hybrid teaching (and a crucial bonus tip!).

Teaching Strategies ► September 20, 2020

The Best Halloween Classroom Ideas for High School English

I don’t know about you, but I freakin’ love Halloween! In high school, however, incorporating the spooktacular spirit can be tricky. Anything that doesn’t enrich or supplement the mandated curriculum is frowned upon. But don’t worry! In this blog post, I’m going to share a few Halloween classroom ideas for the spooky English teacher!